I noticed today that my oil pressure seems to be much lower than normal. Ordinarily it's smack in the middle between L and H. Today it's about 1/5th of the way up ..... revving the engine does not reallly make it move.

I'm sure there could be 1000 reasons, but can you narrow it down to a few reasons why it would do this?

I can tell you I've put more miles on it this week than I've ever done, including 150+ in a single day (over several hours) so I'm not sure that has anything to do with it.

Very minor fluid leakage under the car after 2 days, didn't smell like oil and it wasn't red so it's not power steering fluid.

 

Are you sure your oil pan is full of oil?

 

No, but I'm going to the body shop tomorrow for something else and they can check it. They just changed the oil and filter 2 weeks ago -- first change after the rebuild.

I prefer to know stuff before going there from you guys so I have a frame of reference, not that they'd rip me off, but knowledge is power, ya know?

Engine still sounds fine, nothing major is leaking (I just checked again), no weird noises to signify anything is wrong.

I'm a worrier by nature ....

 

an ohmmeter will tell you (them). if that looks good, i'd do a oil and filter change to rule out the filter bypass valve (if yours has it)
if there isn't any odd noises or leaks. i'd check the connections on the sender and the gauge....again, the ohmmeter will check the sender.

 

an even simpler check is to pull the dipstick out and see if there is oil on. If nothing else it can rule out at least one possibility.

Gun

 

quite often the oil pressure guage is an idiot light, it will run in a certain area no matter what the pressure is. The only time it will drop to zero is when there is NO oil pressure. Depends on the sender that is installed.

Check your oil, if it isnt low dont worry about it would be my advice.. I run mechanical guages on the old cars.

 

Ok, I'll pull the dipstick tomorrow when the car has been driven for a bit. I'd not worry but the gauge has been working fine up until today, and I only had the oil/filter changed 2 weeks ago. I'm thinking all that driving this week may have caused an "issue" but again, there is no oil leak under the car, just a little bit of liquid that doesn't smell like oil.

 

I owuld think that checking the oil would be the first thing you would do. BEFORE driving it again. I know you said it was running ok and there were no noises etc., but by the time you start hearing noises, it is too late. Start with the most likely tuff first. Not sure, but I believe a newly rebuilt engin may consume some oil during break in.
Could also be:
Oil Sender
Sender wire

 

I changed it after the first 500 miles, as I was told to do.

You say to check it before driving it -- but isn't the engine supposed to be hot when you check oil?

If it was on L I'd not drive it, but it's just 1/5th of the way up so I have some leeway to at least drive it to the body shop.

 

You check your oil when the engine is cold. If it is not full when you check it when it is cold then add more oil so that the full level is there. You apparently need to take a course in basic engine maintenance.